AI faces trial in police and technology courtroom clashes that are a matter of “life or death.”

The latest criminal justice battle pits the explosion of Big Tech tools used by police against state-funded forensic offices staffed by elite public defenders.

Companies developing everything from DNA analysis to autonomous surveillance bots have found a broad customer base: around 18,000 police departments looking to get a head start on fighting crime. However, there is no nationally recognized standard for these tools, leaving an important question about the reliability of these technologies: Are they trustworthy enough to meet the courts’ high evidentiary standards?

Lawyers across the country who believe their clients have been unfairly implicated by new technology are forced to fight one-on-one…